Not much longer to wait until the Federal Reserve announces the results of its two-day meeting. What analysts and investors expect to hear is that the Fed is going to ease up on bond buying and hold the line on interest rates. If Fed Chair Jerome Powell says anything that might indicate an increase in interest rates, stocks will hit the fan. And if the bond market doesn’t like the Fed’s implied approach to rising inflation, bonds could hit the fan. The Dow Jones industrials continued to pull back from their Tuesday close above 36,000, the S&P 500 stalled just short of the break-even line, and the Nasdaq traded up about 0.2% in the noon hour.

Meme stocks were broadly higher at noon Wednesday, probably because so many of them trade at such low prices. One stock that started off with a bang was Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY). After trading up by about 80% after-hours on Tuesday, shares opened regular trading up about 53%. That was cut by more than half but still represents the biggest one-day gain since June. We noted in our morning report what the company had to say Tuesday that sent shares to the moon.

Tagging along for the ride was another OG meme stock, GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME). The company had no specific news Tuesday and had improved its premarket gain by noon.

Skillz Inc. (NYSE: SKLZ) was up nearly 10% at noon Wednesday. The company had no specific news, and it reports quarterly earnings after markets close. Here’s our preview of what to expect from that report, along with previews for four other companies set to spill the beans after the closing bell: Albemarle, Fisker, MGM Resorts and Qualcomm.

Electric van maker Workhorse Group Inc. (NASDAQ: WKHS) was the worst-performing meme stock at noon Wednesday. The stock traded up about 7% in the premarket but was down about 7.9% midway through the regular session. The company had no specific news, but most EV stocks were trading down on the day.

At last look, Bed, Bath & Beyond traded up about 22.2%, at $20.38 in a 52-week range of $13.38 to $53.90. The average daily trading volume is around 5.3 million shares, and more than 88 million had already traded on the day.

GameStop traded up 4% to $215.16, in a 52-week range of $10.61 to $483.00. The average daily trading volume is around 2.9 million shares, and nearly 10 million had traded thus far.

Skillz stock traded up about 9.7% to $12.73, in a 52-week range of $7.97 to $46.30. The average daily trading volume is around 17.3 million shares, and about 19.5 million had already traded.

Workhorse shares were down about 7.1%, at $7.22 in a 52-week range of $6.02 to $42.96. The average daily trading volume is around 8 million shares, and nearly 23 million had changed hands by the early afternoon.

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